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Turkey: Virginity examinations

Cancel the code of conduct which permits virginity examinations.

On 19 July 2001, the Minister of Health of Turkey
initiated proceedings to bypass the ban on virginity examinations (Ministry of
Justice, decree no: 27/123) brought into action two years ago after many years
of protest by women and women's groups in Turkey.

Our friends at Women for Women's Human
Rights/Kadinin Insan Halklari Projesi have informed us that following criticisms
from women's human right organizations and his own political party, the Minister
of Health, Osman Durmus has now stepped back from his initial comments and has
recently declared that he himself is against virginity tests and that the
doctors should comply with the ban issued by the Ministry of justice in 1999.
HOWEVER, he has NOT withdrawn the code of conduct he issued and the action must
now be directed to pressure him to cancel the code of
conduct.

There is
another statute named the "Statute of for awards and discipline in the High
School Education Institutions" issued by the Ministry of Education and which
came into effect as of 31 January 1995. This statute states that 'proof of
unchastity" is a valid reason for expulsion from the formal educational system.
Despite the ban issued by the Ministry of Justice, this statute remains to be in
effect. Recently, following protests, the Ministry of Education contacted the
Directorate on Women's Status, asking for their opinion on the statute.
Therefore, please include the Ministry of Education in your
alert.

More background details are
included in the following article from the Associated Press.

18 July 2001:
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's health minister says high school girls training
to be nurses must be virgins and the virginity tests he is authorizing will
protect the nation's youth from prostitution and underage sex. Outraged women's
groups and nurses are vowing to fight, and a teachers' union is asking the
government to fire the minister.

The regulations introduced this week by
Health Minister Osman Durmus allow principals in state schools that train
nurses, midwives and other health workers to expel girls for "having had sex or
engaging in prostitution.'' Girls who are suspected of having sex could be
subjected to a gynecological test to determine if they are
virgins.

Virginity is highly valued in mainly Muslim Turkey. Forced
virginity tests on girls suspected of having had premarital sex were common
until the practice was banned in 1999 after five girls took rat poison rather
than submit to the test.

Durmus said he was trying promote moral behavior
in the nursing schools. "Should our schools become places for prostitution?'' he
was quoted as saying by Akit newspaper. In a tense meeting Tuesday, Buyan Dogan,
the head of the Association of Turkish nurses, pleaded with Durmus to
reconsider. The minister interrupted her frequently, at times accusing the
nurses of defending underage sex. "We will fight this to the end,'' an angry
Dogan said before leaving Durmus' office.

The controversy, which is also
being debated in the country's newspapers, reflects deep divisions between the
large part of Turkey that is deeply religious and the Western-oriented elite who
regard themselves as European. The Islamic-oriented newspaper Akit devoted its
front page to Durmus' attacks on the nurses who oppose virginity tests. "A
lesson for the immoral evil person,'' the newspaper said in its headline,
referring to Dogan. It accused her of defending prostitution and sexual
relationships.

The liberal press, meanwhile, ridiculed Durmus in
sarcastic headlines. Columnist Can Dundar of the Milliyet newspaper asked how
Durmus was going to check the virginity of male nursing students. The Turkish
Union of Science and Culture Workers, which represents teachers, called for the
minister's dismissal. "Durmus should work to solve the country's health problems
— he should not concern himself with issues concerning the waist down,'' said
Alaadin Dincer, head of the union.

In Turkey, girls who attend nursing
high schools are generally from poor, traditional backgrounds. The conservative
countryside is a traditional power base for Durmus' far-right Nationalist Action
Party. The 1999 ban on virginity tests allows them only for gathering evidence
for court cases, such as rape trials. It requires a court order before women can
be forced to take the test.

Durmus said nursing students suspecting of
having sex would not be subjected to virginity tests without a court order.
Before the ban, school principals could force the test on girls suspected of
engaging in premarital sex. The change came after five teen-age girls from an
orphanage attempted suicide by taking rat poison and throwing themselves in a
water tank rather than submitting to the test after returning late to their
orphanage. The girls were later forced to take the test in their hospital
beds.

Concern over virginity sometimes even extends to visitors to
Turkey: In more conservative parts of the country, unmarried foreign tourists
have been dragged out of their hotel rooms for staying with male
companions.